US finds plane and passengers missing 17 years ago

Michigan State Police say they have found a small plane that crashed into Lake Huron in the state 17 years ago, as well as the remains of a long-missing passenger.

Photo: Woods TV

According to Woods TV, the remains found were those of H. Brooke Stauffer Jr., 56 years old, living in Washington DC. He was a passenger on a plane that took off from Mackinac Island to Bad Axe – a small city in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan in August 2007.

Stauffer and his pilot, his fiancée Karen Dodds, were both on board the Socata TB-20 Trinidad when it went missing. Karen’s body was found two months after the crash, but there was no trace of the plane or Stauffer.

According to Michigan State Police, the private company Great Lakes Search and Recovery resumed search efforts in October 2023 at the request of the victims’ families. In August 2024, members of the search team found debris from the plane near Bois Blanc Island.

State divers later found four bodies, and Northern Michigan University’s Forensic Anthropology Center confirmed Stauffer’s identity based on dental records.

Stauffer is the director of standards and safety for the National Electrical Contractors Association. Dodds, 52, owns his own business, Dodds Design, a graphic design and marketing firm in Washington.